Ottawa Paramedics are not responding to life-threatening emergency calls fast enough.
The Ottawa Paramedic Service 2016 Annual Report shows paramedics missed the Council-set benchmark for responding to life-threatening emergency calls within eight minutes for the second straight year.
Paramedics responded to life-threatening emergency calls within 8 minutes just 73.2% of the time in 2016. In 2015, paramedics responded to life-threatening emergency calls within eight minutes 72.5 per cent of the time.
City Council's benchmark requires paramedics to respond to life-threatening calls within 8 minutes 75% of the time.
The Ontario Government set the response time target for life-threatening calls at eight minutes from the time the first Paramedic Unit is notified of the call for service to the arrival of a paramedic resource on scene.
The newly released report shows paramedics met the Council-set benchmark for responding to all other categories for calls, including urgent calls within 10 minutes.
Ottawa Paramedics responded to 137,993 calls for service in 2016, up from 133,965 calls in 2015. Life-threatening calls make up 1.2% of all calls for paramedics.
Council approved the hiring of 24 full-time paramedics and the purchase of five new vehicles in 2017. Another 14 paramedics will be hired next year.
The report says staff will continue to monitor the response time performance in relation to the pending hiring of 24 new paramedics in 2017.
Josh Pringle, CTV Morning Live